Room Selection FAQs

Students who would like to apply for housing should log into PLU’s housing software, eRezLife. Under the recommended actions, select “Apply for Housing”

Students apply for the 2025-2026 academic year should apply to the section “Academic Year 2025-2026: Fall 2025”

Be aware of the following deadlines for housing applications to be submitted. Applications submitted after priority deadlines will not be eligible for priority point consideration and will be processed on a first come first serve basis.

Upper Division Housing Applications [for South and Harstad Halls] must be submitted by Thursday, February 20th at 11:59PM.

Traditional Hall Housing Applications must be submitted by Thursday, March 20th at 11:59PM

Pacific Lutheran University has a Residency Requirement that requires that all full-time students live in university housing unless the student meets one of the following criteria:

• Live at home with a parent in Pierce County or in the following approved zip codes. Please see the attached document for approved zip codes located outside of Pierce County
• Is at least 20 years of age on or before September 1 to be exempt for the academic year, or on or before February 1 to be exempt for the spring semester.
• Enrolled in and completed at least 4 full semesters at Pacific Lutheran University; includes full semester study away programs, excludes J-term and Summer.
• Living with a spouse or child [copy of marriage or birth certificate required].

A student enrolled at the University and living off-campus that does not meet the criteria listed above and without approval from the Department of Residential Life is in violation of this policy, and will be held responsible for room and meal charges for that period and will be required to move on-campus for the remainder of their time.

Upper Division learning communities are located in South and Harstad Halls. Upper division criteria also extends to traditional hall single rooms; students who are assigned to a single room in a traditional hall and meet upper division criteria are eligible for the upper division single room rate listed on our Rates and Dates page.

Criteria for upper division communities are as follows:

• Student must be at least 20 years old OR
• Student must have completed junior standing (60 PLU credit hours)

Students must meet criteria before September 1st to be upper division eligible for the entire academic year OR February 1st to be eligible for Spring Semester. Meeting criteria during a semester (ex: turning 20 in November) does not automatically qualify the student for upper division during the active semester but would make the student eligible for any following semester.

Students who apply after priority deadlines will not be priority point eligible for housing processes associated with those deadlines.

Applications for upper division housing received after February 13th will not be eligible for priority point consideration, if the student is applying for upper division learning communities. However, their application will receive priority point consideration for the traditional hall room selection process. Students who apply for upper division learning communities after the deadline can still be added to upper division housing waitlists without priority points.

Applications received after March 20th will not receive priority point consideration for traditional hall room selection but may still be able to participate in selection, if applications are received before April 5th. Students will be able to waitlist for any hall or learning community after the Room Selection Event.

Students interested in a single room should select ‘Yes’ to interest in one on their housing application. Campus Life designates a limited number of single rooms across all residence halls; Campus Life will review the number of students who are interested in single rooms and our ability to offer single rooms across campus. All students who indicate interest in a single room will receive notice from Campus Life prior to the Room Selection Event, if they are approved for a single room.

Students who do not have a predetermined roommate before the Room Selection Event, and are not approved for a single room, will not be able to select a space through the online system during Room Selection and will be placed in a residence hall, with a random roommate by our office based on available occupancy after the online Room Selection Event concludes. Students who are not approved for a single room will have the ability to request a single room via a waitlist system. 

Students can search for roommates using eRezLife’s roommate feature: Roomeez! After submitting a housing application, students can access the Roomeez roommate search feature.

In order to access the Roommate Search function, students must create a Roommate Profile and have it actively turned on. Instructions for how to set up your roommate profile can be found on our eRezLife tutorials page.

Students are able to search for students on Roomeez using 2 methods

• Search Directly for Roommates – Search for friends directly by name
• Criteria Search – Search by filtering roommate questionnaire criteria
  • Each field provided corresponds to one of the multiple choice profile fields on a students profile
  • Students can search for one or multiple criteria
    • Our office advises only using no more than 3 filters at one time. It is unlikely that you will find a roommate who will match your preference to every criteria field and suggest selecting the 3 most important criteria. 

Students can add one another to their Contact List by clicking “Send Contact Request.” If the student they request accepts their contact request, students will be able to see one another’s contact information (as listed on their roommate profile).

eRezLife does not have the ability to allow students to chat or send messages to one another through the housing software. Students can contact each via social media, texting, or email, as they are comfortable sharing on their eRezLife roommate profile.

Roommate Groups allow students to assign themselves together during Room Selection. Roommate groups can have up to two (2) students in a group.

By being a part of a roommate group, one student may simultaneously assign both themselves and their mutually desired roommate to the same room during the Room Selection Event. Students opting for double-occupancy housing for the 2025-2026 academic year must be in a roommate group with another student in order to select a double room during the Room Selection Event. Students who are not a part of a roommate group will not be able to select a double-room during Room Selection and will be placed by our office into housing after the Room Selection Event.

Students can create multiple roommate groups with different students but can only be actively committed to one group at a time. Students can know which roommate group they are active in by looking for the green check mark next to their name on the “My Roommate Groups” tab in eRezLife.

During the Room Selection Event, students should be aware which roommate group they are active in when selecting rooms to ensure they are assigning themselves with their desired roommate. eRezLife will not allow students to assign both students to a space without both students being in the same active Roommate Group.

Campus Life encourages students who are in multiple roommate groups to be transparent with potential roommates about final roommate decisions. If only one student is active in a roommate group, they will not be able to assign themselves or be assigned in housing during the Room Selection Event. Students are not be able to change roommate groups after selecting a housing assignment without canceling both student’s housing.

No, the student with the earlier timeslot can assign both students when selecting a space during Room Selection.

As a reminder, both students must be actively in the same roommate group in order to assign themselves together. Both students will receive confirmation emails after selecting a housing assignment. The roommate with a later timeslot does not need to log in at their assigned timeslot.

Required consolidation occurs when two students in the same learning community both do not have roommates and are able to be consolidated into one room by having one student move into the other student’s room. Consolidation allows our office to offer available space to other students who either need or would like to request a single room, as well as have rooms available for emergency purposes.

Students assigned to double-occupancy housing assignments without a roommate are given options for how to proceed with vacancies in their room. By either actively choosing the option for required consolidation or not replying by the given deadline in their housing offer email, Campus Life will move forward with filling the student’s vacancy by either consolidating the student with someone else in their learning community or assigning a new roommate based on incoming housing requests, or waitlists.

As a part of Residential Life policies, students without roommates will not have the option to leave vacancies open to fill for potential roommates, unless Campus Life is unable to fill the vacancy due to occupancy in the learning community

Campus Life will assign all students who do not have roommates after the Room Selection Event on April 9th.

Students who either missed selecting a housing assignment by April 9th or request housing after the Room Selection Event will be placed into housing based on available occupancy in residence halls. Campus Life will try and place students together based on compatibility listed in their roommate questionnaire but cannot guarantee that all criteria fields will be exact matches.

In previous years, where Room Selection was an in-person event, students studying away needed to have a proxy attend the event in their place. With the Spring 2025 Room Selection Event being held online, students do not need to have a proxy participate in the event on their behalf. Students who are studying away should be aware of their selection time listed on the ‘Housing Overview’ page on eRezLife to see when they will be able to attend the event and pick a space.

Students studying away who have a predetermined roommate, and are in an active roommate group for the Room Selection Event, can have their roommate select a room for both of them during the event.

eRezLife is only accessible by logging in via the student’s PLU ePass. Campus Life does not advise students to share their ePass login with other students to select a room on their behalf. 

There may be more than one reason that students are unable to see rooms:

• Building and Floor Search – Students must search for space based on building and floor number; students are not able to search for rooms on multiple floors at once
  •  Ensure that if you are searching for rooms based on learning community, that you are searching a floor where that learning community is located.
    • If you search for Hinderlie Hall, on the 3rd floor, and select the Outdoor Experience Learning Community, no rooms will appear in the search results, as the Outdoor Experience Community is only located in Pflueger Hall
    • This will happen for halls with multiple floors and learning communities; searching Ordal Hall, 1st floor, Students of Color Community will similarly not show any rooms, as the continuing student’s Students of Color Community is only located on the third floors of the residence hall
• Learning Community Characteristics – Some learning communities have requirements for students to be able to select a room in a specific community that are tied to a profile field listed on their eRezLife student profile. These communities include:
  • Students of Color Community [Ordal Hall]
  • First in the Family Community [Ordal Hall]
  • Lavender Community [Ordal Hall]
  • LatinX/a/e/o Community [Kreidler Hall]
  • International Students Community [Kreidler Hall]
  • International Honors (IHON) Community [Kreidler Hall]
  • Ability to see and select a room in any of the communities listed above correlates to the demographics section of the housing application and must be answered ‘yes’ to the corresponding demographics question. By selecting ‘No’ to any of the following questions, you will not be able to select from spaces in communities that have these requirements. You may update these demographics selections on your eRezLife profile at any time.
• First Year vs. Continuing Student Communities – Many of the learning communities on campus have an additional first year and continuing students component to the learning community, which may have first years and continuing students living in different wings and/or floors of a residence halls. Campus Life reviews occupancy projections and building layouts each year and may modify or change the make up of a residence hall for the following academic year. Students will not be able to preview or select rooms that are designated for incoming first year students for Fall 2025, which may limit ability to see partial or complete wings and/or floors in a residence hall.
• Gender Restrictions – Specific residence halls and/or wings within a residence hall may have restrictions to select a room based on gender. This primarily impacts:
  • Stuen Hall – this residence hall is open to all gender identities except cis-men.
  • Tingelstad Hall – all wings within Tingelstad Hall are separated into cis-men and cis-women wings, with the exception of 8th floor East, which is a gender inclusive wing

Students are able to check the “Include beds I am not eligible for” box when searching for rooms.  This option will show students all rooms on the floor, regardless of eligibility, including rooms that have already been selected by other students. Eligibility may be reliant on restrictions based on learning community eligibility, gender restrictions, or other criteria. Reach out to RLIF@plu.edu if you believe you should be eligible for a space that you are unable to select.

No, the student with the earlier timeslot can assign both students when selecting a space during Room Selection.

As a reminder, both students must be actively in the same roommate group in order to assign themselves together. Both students will receive confirmation emails after selecting a housing assignment. The roommate with a later timeslot does not need to log in at their assigned timeslot.

If, during your selection time, there are no available spaces in your desired learning community, you may select space in another learning community or residence hall. Once you have selected a space, in your confirmation email, there will a link to add yourself to the waitlist for your desired learning communities.

During the online Room Selection, double occupancy rooms will only be available to students in an active roommate group.

If you do not have a roommate prior to selection and are not selecting a single room, you will not be able to participate in online room selection.

If you do have a roommate prior to selection and are unable to select a space, please make sure the following are true

• You are selecting a room with 2 beds
• You are actively in your roommate group – look for a green checkbox next to your name in the roommate group
• Your roommate is actively in your roommate group – look for the green checkbox next to your roommate’s name
• You are selecting a space in a learning community that you are both eligible for

If you and your roommate are not able to select a room that you believe you are both eligible for, please contact RLIF@plu.edu